Knitting Geek Questionnaire

The Knit-Geek Questionnaire

1. What's your worst habit relating to your knitting?

Startitis. letting projects languish before eventually finishing.

2. In what specific ways does your knitting make you a better person?

Well. Being patient and not afraid to make mistakes because one learns from these.

3. How might you or your life be different if you were suddenly unable to knit?

Going stir crazy?

4. If money were no object, what one yarn, and what one tool or gadget would you run out and buy first?

A clock winder with a counter. I really hate counting all those strands after I've wound my handspun yarn on a niddy noddy because you have to work so hard not to lose concentration. Try doing this at night while your loved one is watching tv and making comments to you about this or that. (Being deaf, I have to look over to Hubby to see what he is saying, thus taking my eye of the skein.)

5. What knitting technique or project type are you most afraid of (if any)? What, specifically, do you fear will happen when you try it?

Intarsia. It looks too fiddly to me and I don't relish the thought of sewing in all those loose ends. Kaffe Fassett designs are truly beautiful, but I very much enjoy admiring at other folk's work and applauding their patience at sewing in the ends.

6. Who is/are your knitting hero(es), and why?

Elizabeth Zimmermann, for her rallying call to the knitters. Meg Swansen, for continuing her mother's work and being innovative. They both gave you the freedom to deviate from the path.

7. Do you consider knitting, for you personally, a mostly social activity, or a mostly solitary activity?

Currently, it's a solitary activity, for the most part. I don't really have a favorite LYS anymore. Yarns International closed their store front during this past summer, and even before then I'd gone their irregularly because I was busy with work and life. Still haven't found one that I can feel comfortable with (there's one that is just under half hour drive from here but I just don't at home there). I used to belong to a knitting group that met once a month. Life happens, though, and the regulars no longer meet. I tried to start a group to meet at Barnes & Nobles which is just about a minute or two from here but it didn't work out. That's one of the things that I miss - being with other knitters and getting to admire their works.

8. Is there a particular regional tradition in knitting that you feel strongly drawn toward (e.g., Fair Isle, Scandinavian, Celtic, Orenburg lace)? Any theories as to why it calls to you?

Fair Isle. It's the color play that draws me. I love color and pattern and Fair Isle blends these beautifully. Note that I'm talking about Fair Isle as in Shetland Islands.

9. If you were a yarn, which yarn would you be?

I guess it would have to be Shetland Spindthrift (and Jamieson & Smith yarn too). So many colors to chose from.

10. Some statistics:

(a) How many years have passed since you FIRST learned to knit?

I believe officially it is 12 years. Unofficially, it must have been over 30 years - I learned to cast on, knit a row, but couldn't move beyond that because I didn't have any knitting mentor to encourage me to move beyond.

(b) How many total years have you been actively, regularly knitting (i.e., they don't have to have been in a row)?

Lets see . . . 12 years. Ever since I took that class at that long-departed store in College Park, MD.

(c) how many people have you taught to knit?

I know I've taught a few to knit, but I'm not sure of the total.

(d) Roughly what percentage of your FOs do you give away (to anyone besides yourself, i.e., including your immediate family)

About 10 percent. Mostly to my mother (because I know she'll appreciate it).

11. How often do you KIP (knit in public)? i.e., once a week, once a month, etc. Where do you do it?

I do it all the time. Usually I will have at least one project with me when I'm out with Hubby and driving somewhere. I like to keep it handy for those conversations when there will be dead silence and when I will not be able to understand what people are saying. Of course, I don't knit in settings where it's not appropriate to do so.

12. If a genie granted you one hour to stitch-n-bitch with any one knitter, living or dead, who would you choose and why?

Hmm . . . Elizabeth Zimmermann. She had such a way with words and I would have loved to learn more about her background. I'd have to have an sign language interpreter with me, though.

13. What aspect or task in knitting makes you most impatient?

Sewing up the pieces. Measuring the gauge, because I always have a hard time counting the stitches - when I focus on the swatch, the stitches just blend into each other.

14. What is it about knitting that never lets you get bored with it?

Watching the pattern take shape in reality.

15. Describe how and where you most often do your knitting - where do you sit, what is going on around you, what tools do you use and how are they (dis)organized?

Hard to say. I guess I'm frequently found knitting while seated on my bed. It's the largest space that is soft enough to get reasonably comfy (although the bed really needs a new mattress). I will usually have my laptop on my side, along with my pattern that I'm working with. I've got my tape measurement residing on my night table, and my knitting books within close reach. Needless to say, it's not quite organized. Someday in our dream house (which will be built thanks to the multi-million lottery that we will win one day) I will have a fiber studio, with a nice, comfy chaise with a generous table next to it, along with an Ott-Light lamp.

16. Which one person is the recipient of more of your knitting than any other?

Me, of course.

17. What's the oddest thing about your knitting, or yourself as a knitter?

I can knit two colors on my right hand. Usually instructions will have you use both hands, one color for each hand. Or they tell you to knit Continental, but I've never gotten that technique down pat

18. What do you see yourself knitting - if anything - twenty years from now?

More of the same.

19. If you were stranded on a deserted island and could have only ONE SKEIN of yarn, which yarn would it be and what would you do with it?

Boy, that's a hard question. I think I'd go with Brown Sheep Nature Spun worsted, and make myself a pair of socks.

20. If you were allowed to own only one knitting-related book, which would it be? (you'd be free to browse others, but you couldn't keep them)

Umm, do I really have to answer the question? Hubby's looking at me as if he's trying to make a point . . .

21. Is knitting the new yoga? Why or why not?

Yoga? Well, I don't do yoga. I'll have to say, however, that knitting gives me an opportunity to think about different things quitely.

22. What important thing are you trying to put off doing whenever you knit?

Finishing off something that really needs to be finished off, such as cleaning, but which I really don't want to be bothered with.

Now . . . how about you?